British detective writer P. D. James dies aged 94

27th November 2014, 0 comments

British detective writer P. D. James, who was best known for her mystery series featuring policeman and poet Adam Dalgliesh, died on Thursday at the age of 94.

"It is with great sadness that the family of author P. D. James, Baroness James of Holland Park OBE... announce that she died peacefully at her home in Oxford on the morning of 27 November 2014, aged 94," Faber & Faber said in a statement.

The Oxford-born author drew inspiration from working for three decades as a civil servant, first in the National Health Service and then the police and criminal policy departments of the Home Office or interior ministry.

She began writing in the 1950s and her works were adapted into popular television series in Britain and the United States from the 1980s.

She has won multiple international awards for crime writing.

Her book "The Children of Men", a dystopian novel set in England in 2021, was turned into a 2006 film starring Clive Owen and Julianne Moore.

Faber & Faber hailed her as "one of the world's great writers".

"She was so very remarkable in every aspect of her life, an inspiration and great friend to us all," it said.

"Working with her was always the best of times."

She was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) honour in 1983 and was named as a life peer in the House of Lords, the British parliament's upper chamber, in 1991.